Loveland

From 1799 to 1892, even the Supreme Court of the United States declared this nation a Christian nation. Even when two Jews of the FDR cabinet interceded with the President about the Jewish holocaust in Germany (Henry Morgenthau Jr and Ms. Cordelle Hull), Roosevelt reportedly said, “this is a Christian nation and we will not interfere with Mr. Hitler and the Jews.” If this is a Christian nation, and since God is love (1 John 4:8) the United States of America could be called “Loveland”.

There is a town called Loveland in Colorado, 50 miles north of Denver. Like most towns, they have an art gallery, and since most art galleries are very liberal in their thinking, the decided to display some pornography. The work of a Stanford University artist, Enrique Chagoya, was displayed, showing Jesus Christ in a sex act. There were not any men in the Loveland area who had the heart to correct the situation, so a 56-year-old Montana woman, a truck driver, Kathleen Folden, came in and corrected the situation with her crowbar. I know no tool more efficient than the crowbar. Of course, Kathleen was arrested, was released last night, and now faces two years in prison when she goes to trial. Her words were, when she took matters into her own hands, “how can you desecrate my Lord?” If Kathleen corrects everyone who desecrates our blessed Lord, she has a job on her hands. From the pulpit, to the backyard barbecue pit, the first words out of the drunk's mouth, “Oh my God!” Just imagine those in the pews being so uninformed that they would listen to a lesbian, same-sex marriage preacher in the pulpit.

In my book, the greatest hero of life is the mother of a special needs child, I have known several, children not only with a physical deformity, but more acute, a deformity of the mind. It is a strain on the father, but only the mother, and God, knows what she goes through everyday of her life. I have found that the other children of a special needs brother or sister, have a very special love for their mother because they have seen her love for that child. Her devotion, which is all the child has.

Adrian was such a child, when his mother brought him to me, he was about 10 years of age, the second time he had ever been into town. Adrian's mother expressed her concern for him: no place for him in the public school, no money for private education, “I just believe he has a talent which he wants to express; with colored pencils, and even crayons, he draws like and accomplished artist, it just seems that his eyes are not working correctly, and I don't know if you can examine him because he cannot read.“ I said, “oh yes, I can be very accurate with a retinascope.” After Adrian and I became friends, I examined him very carefully and found that he was very hyperoptic with amblyopia.

The new prescription I put on him, he would not allow anyone to take off, because he could see for once in his life, the world had opened up for him (Only one who cannot see, as is the case now with this writer, could possible understand the exasperation of blindness or low vision). His mother had brought me some of his artwork. She said, “he will sit and draw all day. Do you have any pictures from your travels that he can copy?” In an old house I had purchased, I had found some old National Geographic magazines from more than 50 years ago, in them, I found some marvelous pictures of animals. He particularly enjoyed drawing animals, because of his mathematical limitations he had trouble with lines, particularly buildings, however, he seemed to capture everything about animal life, he drew for me a copy of an enlargement from a photograph I had made in Sri Lanka, of some elephants. I really prized this artwork, had it framed. Of course, like so many of my prized possessions, normal, sighted people have stolen them out of my house, people I was paying to help me.

Speaking of theft, even the theft from a blind person by a sighted person, one female, Sheree, was hired to type for me. The entire lower floor of my house is devoted to my business activities, she volunteered to do some cleaning in my kitchen, I should have known that she had an ulterior motive. No one can believe, and we are still trying to estimate, how much she took to the front door of my house, which her husband put in her car.

Along with all our other learning, some way, at the school house, the church house, the court house, people must learn that in this Loveland of opportunity, that everyone including the disabled, there are consequences for actions. There is a consequence for an artist displaying pornography, especially pornography involving the Creator of the universe. If this had been a Muslim county, this artist's head would be on the chopping block. Kathleen must learn that she cannot take things into her own hands, that even though other Christians admire her actions, just as people admire our Lord's actions when he threw the moneychangers out of the temple, we must be willing to live with the consequences of our actions.

We will never understand why God put such limitations on Adrian, and yet allowed a woman, with other type limitations, to rob me, a person of my limitations. Nor will we ever understand some of the people who saw Sheree driving for me, knowing that she was in my house, did not say something to me about her tattoos, her piercings, her reputation, so that I would limit her employment. Not being able to see her, not being able to investigate as thoroughly as I should and could, for her, it was like robbing a candy store with a blind owner.

In this day when human depravity is more on display than ever before, when there is racketeering, not only in the private sector, but more so in government, the words of our Lord, spoken on a hill beside the Sea of Galilee, become much more understandable, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). In Loveland, North America, where so many handicapped, disabled people are nurtured by God and those who love them, we get a glimpse of the purity of heart. In Loveland, Colorado, we get a glimpse of the purity of heart from a woman whose heart permitted her to use a crowbar, and almost everyday, in every way, we see what evil in the heart can do to people and countries.

I Did It My Way

Acapulco is one of my favorite places in the world. The last time I was there, Queen Elizabeth also made her appearance there. She proceeded up the Pacific Coast to spend some time at President Reagan’s ranch. Out on a boat in Acapulco Bay, my guide said “Up on that cliff is the magnificent home of Frank Sinatra.“ Of course, he knew I couldn’t see, but he described the house for me. Once, in Jerusalem, staying at the Hilton Hotel, I was talking with the late Totie Fields and her husband.  Totie was already in a wheelchair at that time and this was probably her last trip. Sinatra passed by in his golfing clothes and, of course, said hello to Totie.  One of my employees accompanied Sinatra from his plane at the airport to the university auditorium here when he performed some years ago. He said, “You know he is a very old man and he acts like an old man until he gets on stage. But when he was on stage he was totally different from the man I brought from the plane and took back to the plane.” When my lawyer was finishing some paper work on my estate, he said, “I’m going to put the Sinatra clause in your papers, that if anyone challenges your estate they will get nothing.”  He said, “Sinatra made sure his heirs would not quibble over his property.”

Sinatra made the song famous that all people will sing on their way to Hell, “ I Did It My Way.” The Garden of Eden was a paradise, Adam and Eve had everything they needed plus the companionship of God. But, as is always the case when things are going well, Satan has a way of making his appearance, and the scripture says “He beguiled Eve” and Eve, instead of saying to Satan “ I’ll let you talk to my husband,” she tried to handle things herself and brought on the humanity of the world all the problems which we face everyday. And, the first hen-pecked man on earth, Adam, blamed everything on his wife.

Pride precedes every sin and Eve had enough pride to think she could handle Satan. Sin is always beautiful and pleasant for a season, but always costs more than it's worth.  There is always some pleasure in sin for a time, the forbidden fruit was beautiful, tasty, very desirable. The forbidden fruits in our lives are always attractive and we feel do no harm.

I was a college freshman when I saw my first television set. Living way out in the country, we were fortunate to have a radio. At Chapel Hill, some boys in the dormitory said, “We can go to a furniture store down on Franklin Street and watch Carolina play Notre Dame at the Polo Grounds in New York, that store has a new television set.”  Years later, speaking before a youth conference at a Baptist meeting, I said, “if Satan had desired to invent something to make people just as mean as possible, he would have designed and invented a television set.” I had no idea how prophetic my words were at that time. This one electric instrument has become the idol of the American home. The average child watches five hours a day.  Most adults spend more time than that with their television set. The modern television set has channels for everything.  One of my employees, who also worked for a television repair shop, said, “there is more pornography watched on television than anything else.”

I remember my first experience at a “dirty book” store. I was in Copenhagen, Denmark at the famous Grand Railroad Station in the City Center, the station seen in so many WWII movies.  A friend with me said, “The porno section of the city is over to the right of the station” and so like Eve, beguiled by the serpent, I walked over there with him and saw stall after stall of pornographic magazines and pictures.

Years later, I saw the same type of thing in Greenwich Village in New York City and some years later, on the back streets of this “Bible Belt” Southern city in which I have lived most of my life.  But, today, the dirty book stores have all moved inside your own house.  There is no pornography known in Hollywood, Copenhagen, New York City that cannot be found just by pushing a few buttons on your own personal computer.  It is addictive.  I have had grown men, taxi cab drivers and such, reveal to me just how much time they spend watching pornography.  And, it is not just a male addiction, in a recent poll, 30% of all females admitted that they watch pornography.

You are just as capable as me in researching the number of divorces in this country, births to unwed mothers in this country, rape and molestation statistics in this country, the number of men in prison (that you are supporting at the rate of $45,000 per year) for rape, molestation and even murder in the name of lust, mostly brought on by pornography. Every lustful, sexual, sinful thought starts in the mind often with the enabling effect of alcohol or some other drug. A female or male will yield to the temptation of illegal sexual behavior, without considering the consequences.  We must consider this, when we consider the 3,500 babies aborted each day in this country (1,400 black babies) and the fact that although the black population is only 13% of the total, 52% of all abortions are black babies and 70% of all prison inmates are black males, to say nothing of the 70% of Black females who have STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).

One of my friends, a prominent Black physician, a medical officer in the Army with me, said to me recently, “The black race is being eradicated by AIDs and abortion.”  Most new cases of HIV Aids are black male and female.  These are the facts and we might as well face the truth.  The truth is the truth whether anyone wants to hear it or not.  Those who practice sexual promiscuity can sing, “I Did It My Way.”

In Trafalgar Square in London there is a tremendous monument to Lord Nelson, leader of the British Navy. Perhaps his greatest naval battle led to the defeat of Napoleon. The word swept through England that Nelson had defeated Napoleon. But a point of great tourist interest in Paris is the Tomb of Napoleon, both of these great minds knew victory and defeat. Every human experience results in either victory or defeat.  You become a victor over your emotions or you can become a victim of your emotions. In sexual promiscuity your defeat often results in the hurt of so many others. Proud parents of both male and female children rejoice in the union of purity knowing they had the discipline to wait until marriage instead of running the risk of pregnancy, and the hurt of producing a child out of wedlock. God was not joking when he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5)

Some years ago, an attractive young woman worked for me, very capable of doing her job, who had three children at home, all by different fathers, and she had never been married to a man. I told her one day, “If you think your children will forget your life style when they are older, you are very wrong.” This developed after a news account of one child’s father firing a weapon at another child’s father when they were checking on their children at her house and she was busy in a back bedroom with another, newer boyfriend. Another secretary told me that she never wanted to see her biological mother, that “as a child, she would often come home from school and her mother would be entertaining a man in the house and she was told to go and stay at a neighbor’s house.” She said, “I did not want to go to the neighbor’s house and they did not want me.” Can you imagine such a tramp for a mother? You see, these women decided to “Do it ‘their’ way”, to the degradation of their own children.  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

I do not believe Thomas Jefferson, the second President of the United States, was a Christian, but he had a great appreciation for God’s Word as long as he, perhaps our most brilliant President, agreed with His Word. We have all heard about Jefferson’s Bible. Jefferson with a blade, excised all the scripture out of his Bible with which he did not agree. Often, radio commentators and even ministers of the Gospel will say, referring to the Bible, I do not think this or that or, I do not agree with this. It does not matter what you think or with what scripture you agree, the Holy Word of God is inerrant, omnipotent, omniscient.“Thy word is forever settled in Heaven.”(Psalm 119:89)

The broad way that leads to eternal destruction, and many are on it including all the liars and those who support the liars and the abortionists, the thieves and the hypocrites in and out of government will sing, all the way to Hell, “I Did It My Way.” Those in Sodom, were probably singing that tune when the city was forever erased from the earth.

Real and Unreal

#499


In Tacoma, Washington recently, a store owner was arrested by ATF agents because he had received a shipment of 30 toy guns from Taiwan. Like so many of today's toys...including babies that will cry, wet their pants, eat, blink their eyes etc., the guns appeared so real that these federal agents were afraid that these guns would harm someone. Like the old fashioned Red Ryder air rifle of our youth...anything resembling a gun in this politically correct world will bring on the diabolical harassment of federal agents. Some of these plastic guns shoot plastic pellets and some have been used by young people for practice. Locally, a child drew a picture of a gun in his class and was dismissed from school. God help the child who in Massachusetts, was instructed to draw a Christmas decoration, and when he drew a picture of the cross, the very reason for Christmas, he was expelled from school. The phony boloney media enablers and the satanic quislings of political correctness have taken over.

It is like putting a birthday cake on an ant hill. At first, the ants are aggravated but then they find delight in engorging themselves on the cake. The politicians pretend to help us protect ourselves from one another while we are really victims of Federal Control. Freedom is only for those of us who fight for it. The Judas goat has led the dumb sheep into the slaughter house (a sheep will follow a goat and the goat knows there is a trap door for him to escape. This method has been used in slaughter houses for centuries). Judas knew that our Blessed Lord had washed his feet as well as the other disciples on that memorial night before he betrayed our savior. If Judas had repented instead of killing himself probably there would be St. Judas Churches all over the world. But, you do not even name a dog Judas. The Judas goat of pornography is leading our young people into the slaughter house of disillusionment. It is a “me” or “I” generation invincible, infallible, and immortal. There was a time when there was a red light district in any town, backstreets where you find porno shops. Today, the worst gutter of pornography is available in every home where a computer is available. More money is spent on pornography in America than is taken in by all sports stadiums and television networks combined. With boys, it usually starts around age 11. The porno industry is so clever, there will be “pop up” directions to sites involving almost any interest to males. Most boys do not understand that if underage girls send seductive photos to them online, they can bare the name of sex offenders for the remainder of their life. 18% of all high school girls have sent nude photos of themselves to young men...never considering that in the case of a breakup these photos can find themselves around the world. One of the longest court cases in North Carolina involves a former Miss North Carolina whose disgruntled/rejected boyfriend published nude photos of her.

Every generation has a name...Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Media. A recent study shows that youngsters between the ages of 11 and 18 spend over 10 hours a day with an electronic instrument of some sort...television, iPods, cell phones, etc. In one school system, the student said the television was never turned off in their house...that they would even get a plate of food from the dining room and sit in front of the television. This is a sickness beyond comprehension.

I was a college student when I saw my first television set. UNCCH was playing Notre Dame at the Polo Grounds in New York City. Two friends asked me to walk to down town Chapel Hill where one of these television sets was in a furniture store. They wanted to see the game. Just think what has happened in my lifetime. Many children now have a television set in their bedroom...you cannot go into a restaurant, even an automobile garage without one of these incessant idols blasting away.
Perhaps I feel as cynical about this worse example of so called progress. The greatest adventure known to man is found in books. People do not read anymore.

I remember speaking to a Southern Baptist Youth Group at a National meeting in the early 50s. I said then, as I say now, “if Satan had wanted to invent something to make children just as mean as possible he would have invented a television set”. Television combined with the internet has launched our civilization into the debauchery of hell itself.

I walked down the streets of ancient Pompeii in Italy. It is inconceivable that the lava covered everything so quickly, even dogs sleeping in alley ways. It is a fact of history that hot air beyond description engulfed and paralyzed everything before the hot lava covered the entire city when Vesuvius erupted.

We have had warnings of every type...prisons filled with young people...failing schools...lethargic colleges. 75% of all young people who leave Christian homes leave the church in which they were reared...never to return. In 1970, 90% of all homes had a father and mother. Today, only 37% of Black children have a father in the home, 67% white children The Black race is 13% of the population. 52% of all Black babies are aborted (1452 each day). 50% of the American population pays all of the tax for the other 50% of the American population. The recent Obama budget is 3.8 trillion dollars. This means we must borrow 1.8 trillion from somewhere. When will we learn that we cannot get out of debt by spending more money...that when you are in a hole you stop digging. Senator Bunning, father of 9, grandfather of 42 was right...the increased spending and increased Federal Deficit and Federal Debt must be controlled. We keep saying that our children and grandchildren will have to pay this excessive large debt. Not true, we will pay it with inflated dollars. Already, the world is heading into a depression which will require “miscegenation” of currencies. It has already been decided that Mexico, America, and Canada will use the same money but with the financial failures of Iceland, Dubai, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain the entire world will be involved in this financial melee.

Today's poorest Americans live better than the ancient Pharaohs. Still, we are just content to play games to just “go through the motions”. Few people are really sincere or dedicated to anything. For 50 years, I have had employees working for me who would just do anything just to get paid. They knew, a blind man, could not check behind them. They never realize that it was their character, their integrity, their immortal soul that was involved. If you are going to do anything, do it well. The ancient artists and artisans had a passion for perfection. This is the reason that “old” canvases sell for so much money. This is the reason we still marvel as we walk through cathedrals and other architectural marvels built by real passion for perfection.

I will never forget, as a small child, one old man in our church. My father so loved him. His name was George P. Best, large land owner, philanthropist, (no children, left huge estate to orphanages) a perfectionist in everything he did, his appearance, his dedication to his Savior. They were constructing his new home. My father was assisting. Under the house, the brick mortar is not usually scraped from the brick as it is on the exterior where it will always be in sight. Someone said, “why Mr. George, do you want the mortar scraped from the brick under the house where no one will see it?” He said, “because it is my house and I will always know whether the house was built with perfection!” Life is real, not unreal. You only go around one time, make the trip as perfect as possible. Don't carry around the excess baggage of degradation simply because no one can see it...others do not know it is there. You know that it is there. When God forgives sins, he forgets them but he does not allow you to forget them. Believe me, when I tell you, he reminds me of mine...often...even though I know they are forgiven. The consolation I have for living in an imperfect world with imperfect, unreal, people, I know they are subjected to the same measure of sovereignty.

I live in the historic part of the city. I hear people daily walking their dogs, talking with them. I often wonder how much time these same people spend walking and talking with their own children. At the end of this life, will your last thoughts be, “I wish had made more money to leave to someone, I wish I had taken better care of my health”, or, “I wish I had spent more time with my family and friends and had put more trust in the very creator of the universe who assured me, in every way, every day, that he would take care of me?” This is the real and unreal aspects of living...not just surviving.